Bill Speer in his Saturday, Nov. 16 Commentary column asks the question, “Why is natural gas falling out of favor as an energy source across the U.S.?”

The simple answer, Mr. Speer, is that a great amount of people in our society are ignorant. These people think that the electricity they use to charge electric vehicles, turn on their lights, cook their food, or charge their phones comes directly from the outlet in their wall. They don’t have a clue as to how their electricity is generated or consider the path it takes to get there. Many are the same people that don’t associate the chicken, pork, or beef on those Styrofoam trays with a once-living animal.

Speer mentions people switching from natural gas cooking stoves to electric to fight climate change. To supply electricity to that stove first you must burn coal or natural gas to make steam, run the steam at pressure through a turbine-powered generator to generate electricity, and then transport it through a network of high-voltage, medium voltage, and low voltage electrical lines to power that electric stove. All along that stream you lose efficiency.

If one uses natural gas for a cooking stove, that heat is direct and bypasses all the other efficiency losing steps electric power requires.

Speer also points out that natural gas can be stored and then moved quickly from storage in case of high demand. You cannot do that with wind-generated power. Oh, sure, you can possibly build huge battery stations to store some power, but the minerals necessary for those batteries have to be mined from the ground, and the eco-nuts are against that, too.

MIKE LEOW,

Rogers City